Today I get to indulge my “ugly American” side and root passionately for the United States men’s national team (USMNT) as the begin in earnest their campaign to qualify for the 2014 World Cup.  Today, they travel to San Pedro Sula, Honduras to take on Los Catrachos in the opening game of the Hexagonal (Hex for short).

Many soccer fans this qualification for the US should be a given.  But it is no easy task to play a game in San Jose, Costa Rica on a slick artificial turf in a stadium designed to have the fans right on top of the pitch.  Or to play in Mexico City at the famed Estadio Azteca with 100,000 screaming fans, smoggy air at 6,500 feet.  

To maximize their advantage, Honduras is playing this game at 3pm Central time, at the heat of the day.  The country has declared a national holiday to encourage Hondurans to watch the game.  Meanwhile, in the US, the game is on a channel that no one has (BeIn Sport)… this leaves fans in the US to search for streams of dubious legality.  

Kick.tv, YouTube’s answer to a soccer channel has a nice overview of the scene down in Honduras. 

Pardon the jingoism, but “USA! USA! USA!”